Cylinder heads

[Fullraceflathead]

I like that combustion chamber design!!!

[GeneBob]

"If I asked people what they wanted they would have said faster horses."
-Henry Ford
Full Race - Your signature line is funny. I interviewed with Ford in the 1990's and I mentioned "building what people want" and the interviewer replied that Ford tells the customer what the customer wants. I could not believe the arrogance.
They asked why they should hire me and I replied, "I have worked on your cars, you need me."

[Jim Brierley]

Originally Posted by GeneBob

I notice there is no relief over the pistons.
When running higher than 7 to 1 or so, I would suggest people think about heli-coils in the block in addition to the ARP studs with their washers and nuts. Putting high strength studs in doesn't give you full strength unless the threads in the block can carry the load. Especially, if you are adding a few extra ft-lbs to the torque (65 instead of 55). If you are building from scratch, your engine builder can check the threads in the block and make the call on inserts.
I am sure there will a lot of response regarding the torque but you want to take full advantage of high strength studs for higher compression engines.

I now put a .040" relief over the pistons. .040" over 1/2 of the piston doesn't make much difference in ratio.

I've been racing Model B engines since 1958, and have never needed to heli-coil the block, and I have run 10:1 compression and 6,000 RPM, and now run 7.5:1 and a turbo at 10 psi, with no problems. On my OHV Cook I now have the cylinders 'O' ringed. I also ran full babbitt, including the 'B', rods for many years and the mains are still babbitt. The crank is a drilled for pressure 'C', standard but not new when I first put it together in 1960. I torque the Cook to 70 psi. Top speed to date is 167.45 MPH

[Flathead]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge by writing that most excellent book!

[California Travieso]

Jim,

Can I get on the list for one of your heads?

David Serrano

[ModelA29]

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Originally Posted by GeneBob

..... I interviewed with Ford in the 1990's and I mentioned "building what people want" and the interviewer replied that Ford tells the customer what the customer wants.......

Most people are under the mistaken idea that they are customers of Ford Motor Company. Ford could care less about input from the owners of their cars. The car buyer is the dealers customer. The dealer is Ford's customer and they have very little input as to what shows up at their door. They get a message that X number of cars are on the way and to have a check ready. Ford (for the most part) doesn't care how the dealer gets rid of the cars since they'll be getting paid for the next shipment they send in a short while. A friend was a PR contractor for Ford. He got us into some of the Ford events they host to bounce ideas off the public as to what they want to see in a car. Those events went from an interview type meeting for the low dollar cars all the way to sit down dinners with wine and professionally done videos and a cozy exit interview. I also did some pre production ride & drives. In the end they weren't really asking what you wanted but if you liked and would buy what they had decided to build. Of course you agreed after all you were leaving with $100 - $200. I got an invite about 6 months ago. It paid $150 for a 1 hour survey in Pasadena (20 miles away). I figured it would stretch to 2 hours and put me in the middle of SoCal traffic so I declined.